Opening hours

Chezy Menna

Berlin, am 30. November 2016

Oday was my first day of German school in DeutchAkademie. I have a weird relationship with first times in everything I do. We usually have a lot of fun with you.

Allow me to introduce myself first. My name is Chezy Menna and I’ve been to Berlin almost 4 months ago from Spain but I’m from Israel.

I’m what you call a “Citizen of the world”. I hate to be a tourist.

As a kid I would like to know seven languages and by now, as I would like to learn English, Spanish and German. Which I do not.

I would like to learn German with a private teacher. It has been a long time since I was born.

So, today was my first time in German school and for three hours I was struggling to stay up and not to bang my head against my notebook.

Do not get me wrong. It’s not the teacher. She’s super cool and has a lot of patience for us. It’s me, that’s how I deal with “difficult”, I just want to go to sleep.

I’ve been in high school. I’m so happy to be here. I’ll be there for you.

The thing is, I’m sorry. Without that you can go back to where you came from. In both cases, you will always be able to live with the local bureaucracy.

I had a lot of patience, but it was not a good thing. I’m going to have a good time.

I heard an interview with the Israeli actress Ayelet Zorer, who played the latest Hollywood movie “Daredevil”. She said, “You’ll never be able to climb on a cliff if you look up and say wow, how high.” .

So I heard her, kept my eyes open and got myself “sugar high”.

See you tomorrow. We have a second date!

Chezy Menna

Berlin, am

Don’t tell my sister in law but I love Christmas. She’s an American Jew and she always hates it when she hears me singing Christmas Carols or hears that I have a tree in my house. Yes I know, I’m a Jew, I’m not suppose to celebrate Christmas, but I’ve never cared for what people thought I can or cannot do, so why should I start, when it comes to Christmas?

There’s something about the Christmas spirit that warms my heart. With the energy that changes and tunes everyone on the same positive vibe.

I especially love Christmas decorations and Christmas lights. Don’t kill me for that, but i’m a sucker for kitsch. It’s funny because “Kitsch” is a German word that was used in Idish, which was the language Jews from Eastern Europe where using. Today you can find it used in English and as well as in Hebrew. It defines a design considered to be in poor taste because of excessive garishness or sentimentality. Excessive or not, I think that everyone loves it and the ones who don’t, hate to admit that, because it’s not manly enough or they are just too damn bitter to allow the sweetness of Christmas crawl into their hearts.

Lucky me, I have friends who loves it and when we came back from thanksgiving dinner, we drove by kudam Christmas market, saw the decorations and made a Uturn to appreciate the lights a little bit more.

On Sunday night I couldn’t help it and had to go there and see it up close, not from behind the window of a car.

I was strolling down the street taking pictures of every tree, a star and of the beautiful rain deer, who I thought was Rudolph but it was missing the red nose.

I also treated myself with a Schokokuss that isvery familiar treat in Israel too. There are cream people and biscuit people, but although I usually hate cream and prefer the Israeli biscuit, surprisingly, I loved the German cream version and didn’t really cared for the biscuit.

Going out from the market I thought it would be nice that instead of a small green plastic tree, I will get this year a real Christmas one.

I was so excited about that for a second, just before I realised, I don’t have a flat of my own and I’m still looking for an apartment in Berlin.

I was so excited about it, I was so excited about it.

Chezy Menna

Berlin, am 29. November 2016

I use to hate group ball games, football, basketball and volleyball. The fact that there’s a ball I had to throw in some way and there’s a group of man dependent on how good or bad I’ll do it, scared me off the court. In school, every time the gymnastics teacher divided the class into boys and girls, I knew that in a minute, he will throw a ball to the hands of one of the boys and we will be asked to split into two groups that played against each other. I was always one of the last to be picked, mostly because I didn’t want to be picked at all. Actually, I wanted god to pick me and make me go away, but he never did. I always felt I was too clumsy to hit, throw or kick the ball. That if I would, I will miss and that you’d be better off without me, Cause you’d probably lose the game if I was on your team. I lost so many games that way and ever since, I almost didn’t touch a ball, and the anxiety of disappointing the guys only grew. That’s till I met this wonderful group of people that plays volleyball together every week ay Beach Mitte. “Chezy, it doesn’t matter how well you play. We’re all gays, everyone plays in different levels”, one told me when he saw the question mark on my face when he offered me to join. For the first time it made me feel safe, it made me feel that whoever I am, good, bad, boy or a girl, everything goes and everything is ok. It’s the second time, already that I come to play with them. Suddenly, I don’t want the ball or me to disappear. Actually, I was waiting for this night all week. They make me forget if I’m playing good or bad, if I’m throwing like a boy or a girl or if I’m part of the winning team or the losing one, they are all here to have fun I guess they know that having fun is more important than anything else, because whenever people are having fun, it’s helps them do better. And even if we didn’t do better, at least we all had fun. Isn’t that what it’s all about?

Chezy Menna

Berlin, am

When I was 13, I wanted to go to a language school and be a man who knows How to speak 7 languages. I couldn’t go because of stupid regulations and instead I went to a different high school with physics and math and many other things that weren’t right for me and that made me forget many things about myself, including wanting to “be a man of many languages”. For many years I knew only two language, Hebrew and English, until three years ago. I had tattoo in Arabic done, that I felt deep inside that I needed to do. This tattoo reminded me something I had forgotten, that I wanted to know 7 languages. Few months later I met my former Spanish love, with whom I didn’t have a common language. So I started learning Spanish that became my third language, in which I know how to speak, read and write. Almost two years had passed and I had to leave and live somewhere else. That’s how a while ago I came to Berlin that in four weeks became my new loving home. However, it’s impossible to feel at home when you don’t know the local language. So today I start my first German class, which became my fourth language.I don’t know yet what will be my fifth, sixth or seventh language but I trust that I will get there, like I got here, half way through. I just listened and followed what I heard. To get started I bought a notebook to be reminded that I can do everything and got an amazing German teacher to get me there. Good luck to us and thank you DeutschAkademie for being a part of my journey.

DeutschAkademie

Berlin, am 11. November 2016

It has been a great experience for me since I joined this language class by the Deutsch Akademie. For those out there who are deciding where to learn German, and how to register yourself with, I am here to share a bit of my own experience. I did not read carefully before I register, but one will be tested with the knowledge of German, both on the speaking and writing tests. Of course, I can go back home first and do my review before I began the test, but the queue at the office makes you want to just get it over and done with. Prior to moving to Berlin, I have already purchased online apps that could jump-start me with a basic German. I am rather pleased with myself when I learned that I am placed at level A1.2 (A Eins Zwei) which means I skipped one level ahead. But then not a minute later I began to have a panic attack, what if I got lost in this probably advance level. I felt some nervousness in me. But after went through 4 weeks of classes, from Monday to Thursday, 16 classes of 3 hours daily in total, I can vouch for the quality of the tests that the staff had given to me. I was indeed placed at the right level. I love the system of numbering and alphabets that they have at the office. The numbers are for those who just have general questions, and the alphabets are for those who are going to sit for their speaking test. If you don’t really understand this, well just come over to the academy and experience it yourself. Today is our last day for this course. Some will leave the country, some will just not be joining the next level, but the rest who will be continuing their journey to the next level will continue their next class as usual on next Monday. It is a serious atmosphere for those who really want to gain knowledge in writing and speaking German. I am really satisfied (so, far) about my progress, although I have to say, the classes were pretty intense, (which is clearly the reason why it is so good) with a lot of homework given by the teacher daily, you are bound to have the kind of progress that I am experiencing. I have shared my anxiety with my teacher and the rest of my friends in the class, how intense and ‘schwierig’ (difficult) this class is, to which she responded, ‘Sei geduldig’, which means, be patience. I guess, I could take that one in, as she has been real patience with all of us. I can not wait to join the next level up. Till then, cheers. Habe ein schönes Wochenende!!! (Have a nice weekend!)